prolegomenous

Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

Preliminary; introductory; prefatory.

Given to making long exordiums or prefatory remarks.

Etymologies

From prolegomenon. (Wiktionary)

Examples

As we are now entering upon a book in which the course of our history will oblige us to relate some matters of a more strange and surprizing kind than any which have hitherto occurred, it may not be amiss, in the prolegomenous or introductory chapter, to say something of that species of writing which is called the marvellous.

AS we are now entering upon a book in which the course of our history will oblige us to relate some matters of a more strange and surprizing kind than any which have hitherto occurred, it may not be amiss, in the prolegomenous or introductory chapter, to say something of that species of writing which is called the marvellous.

Writing, "of which he regarded himself with justice as the founder and lawgiver; and in the" prolegomenous, or introductory Chapters "to each book -- those delightful resting-spaces where, as George Eliot says,

He believed that he foresaw a “new Province of Writing,” of which he regarded himself with justice as the founder and lawgiver; and in the “prolegomenous, or introductory Chapters” to each book — those delightful resting-spaces where, as George Eliot says, “he seems to bring his arm-chair to the proscenium and chat with us in all the lusty ease of his fine